How to Increase Your Summer Restaurant Sales41989

Chapter 1 Hiring for Summer Months Recruit Aggressively On-board Thoughtfully Train Thoroughly Chapter 2 Planning Your Menu Farmer’s Market Ingredients Summer Specials Salads Grilled Me

How to Increase Your

Summer Restaurant Sales

Chapter 1

Hiring for Summer Months

Recruit Aggressively On-board Thoughtfully Train Thoroughly

Chapter 2

Planning Your Menu

Farmer’s Market Ingredients Summer Specials

Salads

Grilled Meats and Vegetables Seafood

Chapter 3

Preparing Your Drink List

Flavored Water Lemonades

Iced Coffee and Tea

Chapter 4

Opening Your Patio

Check Your Local Laws Thoroughly Clean

Buy Weather Appropriate Furniture Maintain Your Patio Heaters

Raise Your Umbrellas Protect Against Bugs Advertise

Conclusion

Contents

3

4

8

11

15

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Even before warmer weather is upon us

and schools start letting out, your restaurant

should start planning for the summer

season

Many restaurants, particularly those located

in tourist-driven areas, will want to entice

new and returning guests to come out to

your place and enjoy themselves, especially

while the weather is so nice Other

restaurants may see their traffic naturally

dip as students move away or regular

customers take extended vacations, so it’s

important to attract as many new customers

as possible to fill in the financial gap

But no matter what your anticipated traffic, putting together a solid plan for the months

of June, July, and August can help maximize

a restaurant’s profits and keep service moving as smoothly as ever

Do you have plans to bring on more staff? Need to get that outdoor seating set up, but not sure where to start? Want a few food

or drink ideas to give your menu that extra oomph? We wrote this book for you

We wrote this book for you

Introduction

1

Sunny days and warmer weather may

still seem so far away, but the reality is

summer will be here before you know it

Ramping up your kitchen and serving staff

to accommodate traffic (and keep tables

turning) must be a priority for any manager

or owner — and it’s not too soon to start now

It’s important to start the summer hiring

process early to compete with other

restaurants and businesses who want to

get their best team in place, too Anywhere

from January (at the extreme) to April (think

Spring Break) should be marked on your

calendar to get the process rolling each year

You don’t want to be caught understaffed

when a flood of new customers — who

expect the same level of service in summer

months as during the rest of the year —

begin to appear Nor do you want to face being understaffed if your year-round team all decide they want the last week of August off for a beach vacation Even if your traffic turns slower in summer months, adding

on extra help can ensure you don’t end

up in a bind

Plus, if you hit the ground running early enough, you can take advantage of the extra help on Mother’s Day, a traditionally very busy weekend for restaurateurs Follow these three steps and you’ll be well on your way to having a team that will impress — not stress — you all summer long

Hiring for Summer Months

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Recruit aggressively

Start with contacting last year’s summer

staff Going with a known entity can

certainly save you time and money These

are employees that have proven themselves

to you in the past and with whom you

presumably already have a rapport They

understand your expectations upfront, know

what kind of benefits and advantages come

with the job, and should be well-versed on

most of your operations

Recruiting from your list of recent seasonal

employees (assuming, of course, each one

is someone who performed well enough that

you’d want them back) can make the training

process go much smoother

But be careful not to skip training entirely

Nine or more months away from the daily

routine warrants a brush-up, especially if

your processes have changed at all in the

past year Just assess their training needs

as you go along

Use your current employees to recruit new ones If your employees enjoy working for you, they’ll have no problem telling

potential recruits about the job And rock stars generally want to work alongside other rock stars Your employees have as much at stake as you do in making sure you hire the right people

Encourage your staff to tell their friends in the industry and any other contacts they think will be a good fit about the opportunity Don’t forget to include your staff in the hiring and training process, even if it’s just to give

a tour or answer questions Self-interest can go a long way: any incentive, cash, or benefits offered for referrals that lead to hires will add a cherry on the top of your hiring effort

Keep your expectation of the “ideal worker” broad It’s natural for restaurant managers to immediately think teenagers when considering summer hires Kids are out of school, looking to make extra money, and have few commitments set in stone until autumn

But high school and college students are not the only people suited to take on a temporary position Besides unemployed adults currently looking for work, you will likely also receive applications or inquiries from seasonal workers looking to accent their full-time positions, like teachers, university professors, other university employees, and construction workers in hotter climates

Be upfront about hours and work schedules

to ensure a clear sense of how flexible

an applicant is, no matter what their

circumstances And who knows? If someone

sufficiently impresses, it might be great to

potentially keep on the "best of the best"

come the winter months

On-board thoughtfully

How do the logistics around temporary

hires work differently than permanent

hires? On the face of it, there should be

few aberrations in your normal on-boarding

process Employees you bring on for the

summer will generally be paid hourly, like

most restaurant employees, and you are

held to the same minimum wage standards

applicable to your other employees

With the controversy of minimum wage

increases sweeping certain jurisdictions,

restaurants may feel the pinch even more

dramatically when it comes to adding on

summer staff But even if your state or local

government hasn’t mandated an increase

to wages, prospective employees are more cognizant than ever of the debate Keep your ear to the ground in your community to hear what expectations are out there among new hires and hiring managers You’d hate to lose out on quality staff because your pay scale

is out of touch with perception when your competitors’ wages aren’t

Of course, standards around discrimination, harassment, and workplace health and safety apply uniformly no matter whether your employee is hired on for the summer

or ongoing Tax reporting responsibilities remain the same — for both you as an employer and your summer employees — regarding hourly wages and tips

However, the kinds of benefits your seasonal employees are eligible to receive may vary,

so be sure to consult the Federal and your state department of labor to determine your responsibilities There may be specific rules applicable to certain benefits,

including health care coverage, workers’ compensation and unemployment benefits

You’d hate to lose out

on quality staff because

your pay scale is out

of touch

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Double check the specifics of Federal Child

Labor laws as well, even if it’s for members

of your own family working hours during

the summer months There are restrictions

involving work in freezers or meat coolers,

and the operation of certain equipment

These restrictions may affect the type of

work minors can do in your restaurant — not

to mention the number of hours they are

allowed to work in a given week.1

Train thoroughly

When hiring for the summer months

exclusively, you may feel it’s important to

get people out on the floor faster; the time

investment of extensive training just doesn’t

seem worth it for a temporary hire But

carefully trained staff — no matter how long

you intend to keep them on — can save you

time and money immediately, not just in the

long term

Servers that know your menu inside and out

will be able to make thoughtful suggestions

that grow a customer’s final ticket size

Kitchen staff that are fully vetted on the

chef’s vision will require less oversight and

be less likely to deliver an incorrect dish

to the expediter And everyone working

together as one team — not the permanent

staff and the temporary staff working

separately — will keep morale high and

expectations level

Try to manage all training at the same

time to avoid wasting resources Your time

is valuable, but the answer to conserving

it is not to shortchange training — just

consolidate it This is where smart and

1 “Fact Sheet #2A: Child Labor Rules for Employing Youth in Restaurants and Quick Service Establishments Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) – U.S Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division”

http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compli-ance/whdfs2a.pdf

Carefully trained staff can save you time and money immediately, not just in the long term.

early recruiting can help you get every new employee in for the same first day training, and minimize stragglers who you will need

to repeat lessons for Training in a group will also promote camaraderie and teamwork, particularly if you get long term employees

to help out with demonstrations and walk-throughs Ultimately, you’ll get the best work out of every employee if they feel like they can trust each other and if everyone is working toward the same goal

Once you have your staff in place, of course, it’s time to decide what you’re going to have chefs and cooks prepare — and servers promote and deliver Next we look at the centerpiece of your summer planning — the menu

Chapter 2

Every savvy chef with their eye on the

bottom line knows that adding seasonal

menu items can be a huge benefit to a

restaurant From a customer perspective,

those menu items are something really

special, a dish that’s just for a limited time

to celebrate the season — in this case,

summer And for the restaurant owner and

chef, it’s a great way to build on your overall

brand

There is an endless variety of options for

adjusting your menu for the season, but

there are a few trends we consistently see

pop up in preparation for summer

Farmer’s Market Ingredients

It can be a very smart business move to take advantage of farmer’s markets in your area You can get great fresh ingredients in season and then advertise to your customers that you proudly use local ingredients at your restaurant

The catch is that you’ll also have to anticipate what the farmer’s market is going

to have available This is where building relationships with the vendors comes in handy If you get to know the local farmers and artisans at the market, you can start getting an idea ahead of time of what produce will be available from month to month

Planning Your Menu

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You can also tell farmer’s market vendors

what you’re planning to do for your dishes

and — knowing you want to buy from them

— they can prepare in advance to have

what you need It all comes down to building

those relationships at the beginning of the

season and then doing a lot of networking

throughout the summer and beyond It’s

not a short term solution – it’s a long

term investment in building professional

relationships

Summer Specials

The summer season allows you to also

explore new specials After all, bringing

appropriately seasonal flavors into your

dishes can be especially enticing for guests

If you’re going to the farmer’s market to pick

up ingredients for your special, make sure

to be flexible with your plan if the produce

you need isn’t there If you have a yellow

squash recipe but can’t find any, consider

substituting with fresh green zucchini

Also think of your specials in terms of “stars

and plowhorses.” Star items are the ones

with high popularity and high profitability

They’re ordered often and give you the most profit after food and labor cost Obviously you want to see as many of these items on your menu as possible — and if a special ends up being one of those stars, consider incorporating it into your menu Plowhorses are the ones that are high in popularity but lower in profitability For these items, see

if you can adjust the ingredients so that they are more profitable without lowering overall quality (and lowering the popularity

of the dish in the process) While testing out adjusted plowhorse items as specials, you can see if those adjustments can turn it into

a star

Salads

Salads are very popular in the summer when guests are looking for something fresh and light compared to the warm and heavy staples of the winter months Look to seasonal produce like endive, butter lettuce, cucumbers, hearts of palm, and sugar snap peas to create summer salads that go beyond the iceberg lettuce standard

Choosing seasonal vegetables is not only a

good way to incorporate summer flavors into

your menu, but they’re also likely to be the

least expensive in summer because they are

in season Plus there’s the added benefit of

adding the bright colors of those vegetables

to your summer menu

Don’t forget about fruit – it’s not just

for traditional fruit salads Blackberries,

peaches, elderberries, Asian pear, and

cherries are all fair game among your leafy

greens, but they are far from the only fruit

you can incorporate into special summer

salad fare And since it is a fruit, you can

never go wrong with the many varieties

of summer-picked tomatoes Talk to your

cooks, get creative with your salad choices,

and see what happens!

Grilled Meat and Vegetables

Summer is the prime time of year for grill

and char flavors Steak, kabobs, barbeque

chicken, and more can be intriguing

additions to a summer menu, especially if

you’re in a city area where many apartment

renters can’t keep an outdoor grill at home

But don’t forget about the vegetarians!

Grilling vegetables can be a great way

to elevate the flavor of meatless dishes

and help those with dietary restrictions

(or who just prefer to eat vegetarian) still

enjoy a great dinner out with their

meat-eating friends Also think about the kinds

of fruits you can grill – pineapple, plums,

bananas, and peaches put on the grill

can all be fair game for desserts or sweet

accompaniments to savory dishes

Thinking outside the box with grilling can be

a great selling point for guests wanting to try something new and innovative this summer

Seafood

Fish and shellfish is easier to get (and get cheaper) in the summer when so much popular seafood is in season and deliveries are easier to make over long distances Guests are also thinking of fresh, light dishes now, which definitely can include fish Take advantage of the warm weather by creating cold seafood dishes, like ceviche, gravlax with capers, shrimp cocktails, or

a whole chilled shellfish platter Also don’t forget your grilling options – you can offer

a baked or grilled fish served whole for an appealing presentation And nothing beats the classic grilled salmon

Depending on your restaurant’s location, ask your fish vendor about local/lake fishes in season during the summer Like with locally grown produce, local fish can be a great selling point to your guests!

Once you have a plan in place for your food menu, of course, it’s time to up the ante on those perfect accompaniments —

the drinks